Making a list and checking it twice

Travelling to Japan for three weeks is going to be quite the adventure. Hopefully not the kind of adventure where I’m lost in Tokyo and need to rely on my 1 year of Japanese to find my way back to the hotel. ホテルはどこにありますか？Then I’d find out I was standing right outside all along and I just couldn’t read the name of the hotel because it was written in kanji. かんじは難しいとたいへんですよ！

I can’t wait for the flight on Monday! I’ll need to get up at 2:30 AM to arrive at the airport at 4:30, so I wonder why I shouldn’t stay up the whole night. I’ll sleep on the plane anyway! I got 13 long hours to catch up on that lost sleep over the Pacific, though it’s healthy to stand up every hour to stop your feet from swelling up like balloons. In theory, at least.

I’ll be taking along with me my Nintendo 3DS so that I can draw lovely pictures of my trip and post them up to this blog, such as the one above. Alright, its bad art, but get used to red and blue, as those are the only colors the system gives me. I’ll also pack my camera for regular photos, and I might even post some too, granted I don’t get punched in the face like the author of San’ya Blues. (I’ll also try to stear clear of the やくざ！)

Okinawa has never been as economically or technically advanced as Tokyo, but why? Is it catching up these days? The years after the Pacific War were rough and from the research I did this week it would seem that Okinawans have a love-hate relationship with Japan and the US. I’m counting the days till I can see the differences in person, not just through Google Street View. I have a few hypothesies about how life is like over there, but they’re probably pretty inaccurate since I’m sitting in South Carolina rather than roaming the streets myself.

When packing for the trip, as I’ve said it’s important to pack the essentials, but I’d better not gold-plate my suitcase. Bringing unnecessary junk with me just means that I’ll have less space for the return trip, and during the off-evenings I plan to buy! Perhaps a Japanese game or two written in kana so I can practice reading, or maybe a Japanese textbook for grade schoolers so I can brush up on some actual concepts. If I’m to become semi-competent in Japanese without taking any more language classes at Furman, I’ll need to start ASAP and strike while the iron is 暑い！